GERMANY MAY BE VENUE FOR ARMENIAN AND TURKISH COMMUNITIES TO MEET

Pan Armenian News
21.04.2005 05:24

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ More and more representatives of the Turkish
community of Germany, including publicists, speak about the
Armenian Genocide freely and without apprehensions, and it is
our victory; however the negative side is that resulting from a
direct influence of Turkey Kemalist forces have become activated
trying to instigate nationalist sentiments among Turks of Germany.
Tessa Hoffman, Professor of Berlin’s Freie University stated at
Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenges: Human Rights and Genocide
international conference. In T. Hoffman’s words, Germany can be a
venue for meetings of the Armenian and Turkish communities, exchange
of information. “The archives of our country are open and Germans are
main witnesses of the events of World War I and they had much influence
in Turkey itself,” she noted, adding at that unfortunately there are
no such contacts yet. Why Germany avoids using of the term “genocide”
referring to the events of early 20-th century, why Germans engage
in self-censorship? It seems it is also due to Germany being drawn
in a range of genocides throughout the 20-th century and though it
has recognized its responsibility to Jews, until now it avoids it in
the case of Namibia,” the German scholar considers. “In case of the
Armenian Genocide Germany was the ally of Turkey and speaking from
the point of view of protection of human rights today, Germany has the
opportunity to study the common history of World War I and the Armenian
Genocide along with Turkish scientists and other interested parties,
use that experience to prevent future tragedies. Germans, Turks and
Armenians can tell each other many things,” Tessa Hoffman summed up.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress